It has been quite a bit of time since I have regularly posted here and I have some catching up to do for sure. Here is how I have landed where I am in life now. 

I had started my goals for 2020 very early into 2019. There was zero doubt in my mind that it was to be a special year with the son graduating college, celebrating our 25 year wedding anniversary with a dream trip, and the potential for a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. 

I personally branded the year as vision 2020 knowing many of the goals I had in motion were progressing to come true. 

Kind of out of nowhere, one day in December 2019, I got a call from a person asking if I would be interested in applying for an open position in HR. This was a change I had thought about for quite some time and had prepared for by getting a Senior Level HR certification and through my experience in my role as a Training Manager. 

With the still in question Sprint/T-Mobile merger on the horizon and the Sprint history with layoffs the norm, doing a career pivot to a high in demand job seemed like a good move. After all, my reasoning went, if I were to need to find a new job the HR role would add to my marketability.  

A risk? Sure it was. 

David as a risk-taker?

Not really.

I had lived a path of the known for the last many years of my career and with the financial weight of the son’s college in the mirror, it was a good time to step into bold.

I had received external job offers over the past few years but had never had the courage to make the change. This was not a move to a new company but instead was a career pivot to a new role. It was also a demotion with a decrease in pay as I was moving from a manager role to an individual contributor. On paper, the new job would be a step back from where I was.

I took the mindset that this was to be a pivot. A step to the side into a new lane so that I could move forward in a different direction.

I applied, got the offer, and said yes! 

I have to admit that the months that came next were among the most stressful of my working career which was, in some ways, exactly what I was going for. Digging deep into the new role, floated through several different teams, and did my best to rapidly learn while making sure to project a personal brand of confidence.

Move to a new career in HR right at the start of a pandemic, a merger, social change, and economic uncertainty? Sure, why not! 

From my start in March of 2020, through the summer of the pandemic, merger, and changes I experienced many what was I thinking moments. 

Now here I am with 2020 gone and 2021 soon to pass as well. Looking back, I am so very thankful that I had the personal courage to step out of my comfort zone and take the pivot risk. 

I have found a new sense of joy in my new role and with my new organization. Key in part is that my core work vision regarding being of service to others has not changed. I am doing who I am but just in a different way.

There is an extreme sense of motivation when you recognize you are doing something as the result of your own choice. There are no negatives that I can blame on anyone other than myself and no positives either. 

I realize now that this truth applies to every part of our lives. Everything is a choice and you can be a victim of these choices or you can grind them into your own positive expectations to turn into victories. 

Now with the new flip of the calendar almost here, it is once again that magical opportunity to choose. 

Strike and be bold

Pivot just a bit to a new direction

Stay the same

Live in apathy

#Choices